Hot Topics:

PA House passes legislation addressing burden on shelters of caring for seized animals

By Jim Hook

Updated:
01/25/2013 05:08:12 PM EST

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania House earlier this week passed legislation requiring alleged animal abusers to pay reasonable costs to care for their animals after seizure.

House Bill 82, co-sponsored by Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg, provides an avenue for both parties to meet before a judge immediately after seizure and to determine responsibility for the animals.

The bill is "so necessary" and would be a "huge help" to private nonprofit animal shelters, according to Nancy Gardner, president of the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter.

A couple currently is running a tab of $50,000 with the shelter in Chambersburg for care of their four Siberian huskies while an appeal of animal cruelty charges is considered in the state Supreme Court.

"We've given them the best of care," Gardner said. "They have had extraordinary veterinary care."

Ralph and Susan Fries appealed to higher courts after a Franklin County Court judge passed sentence in May 2011, a time when the couple already owed $24,000 to the shelter for care of the dogs. CVAS Humane Society Police Officer Buck Hessler seized the dogs in April 2010 at the couple's home in Shady Grove.

In another recent case, dog owners in Greene Township plead guilty to animal cruelty and were ordered to pay $850 the shelter for care of their 23 dogs, most of them basset hounds.

The bill protects defendants, animal shelters and the animals according to Sarah Speed, Pennsylvania state director for the Humane Society of the United States. Under current law, shelters who house animals rescued in cruelty cases often spend thousands of dollars caring for those animals until all appeals are exhausted.

"Pennsylvania's non-profit animal shelters bear an enormous burden in caring for abused animals which must be held as evidence until trial," Speed said. "This legislation gives shelters an opportunity to prove to a court before trial that the seizure was necessary and require the alleged abuser pay the costs to care for these animals pending trial, which both ensures that shelters will be able to continue their vital work and provide an incentive for a speedy trial."

The bill now moves to the Senate.

------------

Jim Hook can be reached at 717-262-4759 and jhook@publicopinionnews.com.